


Blessed Night Come Take You Away

by dawnstone



Category: Meet Me in the Woods - Lord Huron (Song), Original Work
Genre: Dark Magic, Family Drama, Fantasy, Gen, Magic-Users, Magical Accidents, Original Fiction, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 09:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14766708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dawnstone/pseuds/dawnstone
Summary: Anaya's cousins have always been curious and driven when it comes to discovering new magic, but it seems this time they may have gone too far.





	Blessed Night Come Take You Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elleth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/gifts).



In the tangled pine forest well outside of the Great Citadel of Nine Lights, Anaya twisted the smooth, carved bone of her father’s protection charm between her fingers, again.

Her cousin, Adi, two years older than her at sixteen, danced around their small campfire, just on the edge of the warm orange dome. The darkness beyond felt strange tonight, powerful, and heavy. Anaya had enough magic to enhance her senses a bit, but whatever lurked near, slipped away at the slightest brush of her gaze.

As Adi leapt and twirled, her black braids bounced merrily against her shoulders. Anaya didn’t know the spell, yet, but it had something to do with luck and frightening ghosts. Even with fire and Adi’s magic, the wild energy stirring off in the shadows kept shooting black and green feelers in their direction. Wrong spell, probably.

“Adi, how much longer do you think we should wait?” The cold didn’t help matters much; she’d dressed to be able to move around, not sit and wait.

Older, and presumably wiser, her cousin seemed remarkably unconcerned about the dark things lurking near. Nor did she seem to pay much mind to the strangeness of the half-collapsed steel and concrete tower poking out of the dusky green overgrowth not far behind them. The rectangular grey shell stood many stories, riddled and torn, veins of old, broken magical conduits running through the facade; it still faintly glowed and sparked a hundred years after its destruction.

True, the ruin’s unstable spell fields would hide any mischief they got up to tonight from the Wardwatchers. If they weren’t careful, though, their workings would disrupt the fields further and they could get fried like birds careening into a suncatcher garden.

“I wager ‘til sunup. If she doesn’t show by then we’ll have to wait and see if she sends another message.”

“I still think she’s being an idiot. And you’re not far behind.” Her cousin Val’s exploratory jaunts outside the Citadel had been taking longer and longer. Looking for artifacts she’d said, looking for traces of the old road people used, before they had the safety of the transport gates.

“You just miss your cozy bed, cuz.”

“So what if I do. I don’t see why she couldn’t call for us during the day. This place is still unwarded for a reason.”

“It’ll all make sense when she gets here, I promise.”

They waited, and Adi danced, and Anaya gathered firewood out of the underbrush when the fire got too low for her comfort. Maybe an hour passed, maybe more.

The shift between when Val wasn’t with them and when she was, happened very quickly.

Anaya didn’t exactly see a door or a portal open, so much as she felt it. Something changed in the air… and existence, all reality blew aside like a ragged curtain.

The charm in her hand began to heat up. She cried out when it began to burn and then popped in her hand in a bright flash. A curl of smoke rose from the soft bed of pine needles and moss under her feet. Some sort of spell had just triggered on her, but it bounced off.

“Adi!”

She didn’t seem to notice, focusing instead on the place where a familiar tall, willowy figure had appeared. The shaggy pine trees around them seemed to bend inward, like some unknown heavy force weighed them down.

“How...how long was I gone this time?” Val’s voice sounded rough, disused--older.

“Three days.” Adi’s eyes were wide and rapt, and she approached her sister without hesitation.

“That’s all?” Val looked at her hands, her arms, and then put a hand on her sister’s shoulder as if for support.

Anaya noticed her fingers looked dyed ink black, like she’d been burnt, or something worse. The outline of her form appeared slippery, indistinct, like the shadows from before. She thought it might be the firelight, but her gut told her not to be fooled. Wherever she’d gone, it had changed her somehow.

“Something’s wrong. Don’t get too close to her.”

“Don't be dim. She’s been walking the paths, it’ll wear off in a few hours.”

“The paths?”

Val looked up from her sister. “Don’t worry, Anaya. What I’ve seen. It’s bad, but… We can’t stay here. The Wardwatchers won’t admit it, but this world is doomed—the Holy Darkness has touched me. I know things now. If you come with me, you’ll see.” Her eyes were different, colder, older, almost alien. Like some nameless shadow had flowed into them, blocking out all light and life.

“You’ve been going outside the wards? That’s suicidal! Even if you don’t get caught in a storm, monsters don’t discriminate.” She was repeating what she’d been taught in school, because half of learning magic was finding out all of the ways it could go wrong. This felt very, very wrong.

Adi crossed her arms at her. “Tch. How else are we supposed to find out what’s really going on out there? All we have is what those balding, old-ass mages tell us.”

Disbelief in her eyes, Anaya looked back and forth between them. “They lived through the Magus War and Nightfall—all that stuff. They show us the memories in class, so we understand and it doesn’t happen again. Why would you want to—”

“Tell her. Tell her what you told me.” Adi’s excitement didn’t make sense. She’d always been the one to tell the rest of them not to walk too close to danger.

“There’s a whole world in-between. I don’t even know all of the words for it, it’s not safe but it’s survivable. It’s real!” She sounded feverish, and her voice seemed too full, like another voice spoke with her mouth. “Life eternal waits beyond the gate of Night. We don’t have to stay here and wait and listen like slaves.”

Fear had its full fist squeezing her chest, and Anaya shook her head at them. “No one is dying. Adi, don’t listen to her. She’s possessed by something, can’t you tell?” But her cousin just grinned.

Val stalked closer, and the fire flickered and died. “Blessed Night walks with me, yes. Adi is coming with me. You should come, too, Anaya. I want to show you the things I’ve seen. I can’t escape it, I can’t go back alone.” Her voice seemed to break a little on the last word, and Anaya winced.

“You’re not going back at all. We’re going home, and you’re going to the infirmary before whatever got in your body eats the rest of your brain.” She stepped backwards, toward the embers. Maybe if she could get closer to the tower—

“I can’t do that. I know too much now. It’s a part of me, just like you are.”

“Stop talking like that, you’re freaking me out.” She stepped back again, and felt the heat of the twigs there, warm charcoal under her heel. Another step, and Val reached out, her arm stretching far longer than it should have been able to.

Anaya scurried away, afraid to be tainted by her touch, and stumbled and fell into a honeysuckle bush.

Yellow blossoms rained down on her, cool and honey sweet; something about the scent snapped her out of her terror.

There was a spell, a small spell all children learned at the start of their training. Disentangling herself quickly, she crouched down and mouthed the rhyme. Close enough to the mangled tower, she reached for some of the untamed magic in one of the conduits. Hoping and praying it wouldn’t feed her more than she could handle, Anaya felt it course into her like purest tingling water. 

Steeling herself, she forced the power into the right shape; a bubble of light radiated out from her body, encircling her completely. Protection from the things that dwell in darkness, protection from Blessed Night.

Val reeled away from her, a strange moan exiting her mouth. Anaya fully stood up, shocked at how bright the sphere burned. She could see well enough to move, and approached her cousin slowly, uncertain if her spell would hold.

Transfixed or stunned by the orb of light, Val stood immobilized. Her whole body shivered like she wanted to move, but couldn't.

"What are you doing? Don't hurt her!" Adi cried out. She ran up, trying to push Anaya away. 

"It isn't supposed to hurt people, just those shadow things." Anaya prayed the spell would burn the dark presence out of her, and she wouldn't have to hurt Adi.

She pulled more strength from the erratic feed of magic from the tower, and forced Adi back with a hard shove; unobstructed, she flung herself forward, grabbing Val in an embrace. They fell to the ground together, just as a great blue flash erupted from the tower behind them. Absent the power she'd stolen, the shielding spells were too frayed to hold the shape of the ruin together. The orb around her winked out of existence.

Metal and stone shattered behind them, as the tower's unraveling spells flew apart in great gouts of blue-green light; the wall closest to them disintegrated. Huddled together, they crouched, arms over their heads while debris and wild magic skittered above them. It took less than a minute, but it felt like forever waiting for the stones to settle; sparks of power continuously rained from the rubble, like blue fireflies.

Still hugging Val, Anaya looked up and over at Adi, and shook her head. "I don't feel it on her anymore. I think it's gone," she said. It was pitch dark now without the fire or her magic burning—normal night, not otherworldly Night. The thing that Val brought with her had retreated.

"I told you she would be fine." Adi crawled over and shook her sister's shoulder, trying to wake her.

"She was not!" Anaya gasped, anger surging in her chest.

Raising a limp hand to tap her sister on the cheek, Val spoke in a half-groan, half-whisper, "I was not okay, Adi." 

Locking her eyes with Adi as she cradled her other cousin, Anaya grit her teeth. "If either of you go missing again, I will call the Wardwatchers. I promise I will." Part of her wanted to run to the authorities now, though it would tear their family apart. The sort of magic Val had been toying with was not tolerated in the Citadel. She might be jailed or cast out, and Adi with her. "Don't do it again, just don't."

"I think we're done exploring. Don't you agree, sis?" Val said. She managed to lever herself up on one arm, and glared hard at Adi. Anaya could barely make out her cousin's frown, she felt it more than saw it, tight like her own clenched fists. It took her a moment, but Adi gave a little grunt of assent.

At that, Val pulled them both into a weak hug. "Good. This was my fault, and I'm sorry. I think we'd best get home."


End file.
